As a lifelong introvert, I live an outwardly conservative life (for the most part). The life I live in my head is a vastly different story. It is much more flamboyant, with me taking on the roles of various characters that impact the lives of others in some way. For example, I’ve been a brown skinned equivalent of James Bond, I’ve been a time traveler who goes back in time to change his future, I’ve been an officer on a starship, I’ve been a vampire in the Renaissance…. you get the idea. Since it’s not possible to actually do any of these things, it was always a childhood dream of mine to be an actor. However, as brown skinned actors in Hollywood are a rarity, that dream eventually faded and gave way to another dream: to be a filmmaker. I’m slowly plugging away trying to make that dream a reality, but my increased exposure over the past several years to Bollywood has revived the dream of being an actor. I won’t say that it’s a full fledged revival, but I definitely think that I may have something to add to Bollywood. Let’s be real; I don’t have delusions of being a Bollywood star, regardless of any resemblance I may or may not have with a certain actor, but I think it would be pretty cool to see myself on a Bollywood screen in some way.
It’s always a surreal moment when it becomes apparent that a dream is on the verge of becoming reality. The discovery that Karan Johar had finally arrived in San Francisco to shoot My Name Is Khan was one of those momentous occasions that caused a rift in the space-time continuum of my universe. The line between my dreams and my reality began to severely blur and the two started to mesh. My imagination ran wild and never came back. Not only would I possibly have the chance to be in a Bollywood movie, but I would possibly have a chance to be in a Bollywood directed by Karan Johar, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol! In my head, that’s essentially the Bollywood equivalent of the Holy Trinity. Of course, this possibility only existed in my head by way of somehow tracking down the shoot locations and somehow convincing Karan Johar to let us be included in the film in some way. I wasn’t exactly sure how any of this would be done, but those who know me know that I’m an eternal optimist.
However, LRK not only solved the problem, but reigned in and gave focus to the fantasy with her discovery of an extras casting call for the film on a message board. “That’s more like it,” I thought. Applying for that would be much easier than anything my crazy mind would have thought of. And there was no time to wait. They would be in town for the next 6 weeks, and we had to get on board right away. We decided that the applications must be submitted the very next day in person, no less, as it stated on the posting that submitting in person had a chance of us being cast right away.
The application required us to provide certain vital statistics and two photographs: one closeup and one full standing shot. The previous night at the W, it had been suggested to us that shooting might be taking place in Golden Gate Park. We thought it would be a good idea to shoot the required pictures at Golden Gate Park, print them out at a nearby Kinko’s, submit them to the Beau Bonneau casting office in person, and then scour Golden Gate Park for the shoot. With so much success under our belt already, we figured that there was no harm in indulging ourselves with a little exploration.
The plan of action was to do this as early as possible, with us getting up and setting things in motion at 8AM. That of course did not happen. After the exhaustion from the excitement of the previous late night, I wasn’t able to get up until after 10AM. It was that feeling of exhaustion that one has after a full day and night of fun and magic at Disneyland for the first time. Predictably, we weren’t on our way to the city until well after 1pm.
We took the first parking spot in front outside of the park as we weren’t really familiar with the area, and decided to walk around looking for the shoot with our photography equipment in hand with the hope that we would stumble upon the set and be mistaken for local crew members who were supposed to be there. For some reason, I thought nothing should be left to chance and had brought my tripod along with me, with the intention of placing my extremely slim and tiny digital camera at the top. This might have seemed like a good idea in theory, but when seen in practice after finding an appropriate spot in the park, it was clearly nothing but the ridiculous action of a person with delusions of grandeur. That would be me in case you were wondering.
After wandering around with no indication that anything was going on in the area, LRK decided to ask a random park employee who was selling tickets for some part of park if she knew anything about a Bollywood film shoot in the area. She didn’t. I suggested to LRK that she should start asking about an Indian film shoot because everyone might not be aware of the term “Bollywood.” The thought had never occurred to her that someone wouldn’t know what Bollywood is, being so immersed in all things Bollywood. When it seemed like nothing would be gained from trudging around the park with a tripod and backpack, we decided that maybe we should just take the pictures there instead of getting lost in the park and not being able to get to the casting office before they closed.
The tripod was set up and the pictures were taken. Kinko’s was located and the pictures were printed. The gravity of the situation began to take hold when we arrived at the casting office. It was a nondescript hole in the wall. For a split second, this caused me to think the whole thing was all a ruse, until we made our way inside. There was a flier on the wall just before the staircase that said “My Name Is Khan – Extra Work Submissions – Please walk up one flight and place in the box.” There was nothing else to do except follow the directions. As we walked up the stairs, delusions of being cast on the spot floated through our minds. We reached the top and there was a box directly below the front desk for the submissions. The office wasn’t as busy as it was described in the ad, and it was manned only by one person. It didn’t look like we would be cast on the spot. Oh well. Being in a position where we were submitting photos for consideration in a Karan Johar film was more than enough.
The events of the past two days had left us in a sort of exhausted delirium. But more than anything, we were hungry. We settled on pupusas in the Mission district (my first time). I’ll probably be relinquishing any sort of SF hipster cred I may have had with this next statement, but I wasn’t really impressed with the concept of pupusas. They wouldn’t be my first choice of random munchie-fulfilling snack in the city. Probably not even a sixth or seventh choice.
With bellies full, we returned to Golden Gate Park in a last ditch effort to find the shooting location. We drove from end to end, crisscrossing wherever we could and covered the park probably a total of five times. It was beginning to seem apparent that we were going on incorrect information. We decided to return to the hotel and have a drink with hopes that perhaps we would catch the crew on their return. One of the waiters recognized us from the night before and sat down and chatted with us for a bit. He was much friendlier this time than he was the night before. We sat for maybe an hour but none of the crew was seen. We were most likely too early, but staying longer wasn’t an option as full fledged exhaustion was setting in. We paid the bill and headed home while fantasies of appearing in a Karan Johar film danced in our heads.
-Sheks
